Recent personal computers (PCs) often have a function to retrieve a character string from the text file as a basic function of Operating System (OS). By using such OS, the PC described above, based on the character string input by an operator with a keyboard or the like, for example, may retrieve the character string from the text file and, when the character string is contained in the text file, display the character string on a display unit such as a display. In displaying the character string retrieved as a result of the retrieval on the display unit as described above, the PC generally jumps to a position displaying the character string in the text file or colors the character string. Such a function to retrieve the character string, due to the widespread of internet-related techniques in recent years, has been increasingly required and has become significantly important.
There are suggested a variety of techniques to improve usability of the function to retrieve the character string. For example, there is suggested a character string retrieval system that enables simple and rapid retrieval of a character string in a plurality of files prepared by one or more application programs (for example, see Patent Document 1).
The system described in Patent Document 1 displays the plurality of files prepared by one or more application programs (hereinafter, referred to simply as an “application” in the present specification and drawings) in the respective windows on the display unit. The operator may, via a setting panel displayed on the display unit, set a character string as a common retrieval criterion for files selected from the files displayed in the plurality of windows. Upon receiving a retrieval instruction as described above, the system may retrieve the character string set by the operator in each of the selected files and display the character string retrieved from the files as a result in each of the windows of the selected files.